MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - THE FINAL RECKONING

Well, we got off to a terrible start in the cinema with a short clip before the film started in which Tom Cruise addresses the audience directly to say something, I forget what.

And of course anyway I went into this with very low expectations following the disappointment of 'Dead Reckoning'.

Sure enough the first hour of this film doesn't have much to offer, other than Luther's death.

After that though I had a good time.

The Russian submarine sequence is terrific and looks great, and before that we get some nice action, intercutting between the team on St Matthews Island and Ethan in a fight on the US sub.  I'm always happy to be in a submarine although I was naturally disappointed we don't get to hear the commander hand over the conn to anyone.

Bringing back William Donloe from the first film is a masterstroke; he and his Innuit wife bring some much needed humanity to proceedings.

The biplane sequence is spectacular (even if something of a rerun of the climax of 'Fallout').

I also enjoyed the nuclear Armageddon stuff with the US President, which was well done and tense.

And my favourite character from the previous film, Paris, gets to kill some people, speak French, and perform surgery with a pen. 

On the debit side, Gabriel is still a poor villain, and the opportunities of doing something interesting with an AI villain are not taken.

And the 'Ethan as saviour of the world' schtick is beyond wearisome.

And surely we have now passed the limit on how many times the team has to defuse a bomb.

The entire plot involving the Entity is bonkers but I was just about able to go along with it although I can't say I understood the business about the poison pill and the Podkova module and trapping the Entity etc etc.  Surely Gabriel at the end doesn't want to run away from Ethan or kill him since he needs the Podkova to control the Entity before the Entity blows up the world?

Not to be too nit-picky but what was the team's plan to get from St Matthews Island to wherever Ethan surfaced?  What if he didn't end up under ice?  How did Grace get from the island to Ethan using only a sled pulled by some huskies?  Can the huskies swim?

In fact this film raised so many questions.

    Why is Luther in a hospital bed?  And why is the hospital bed not in a hospital?

    Who was the guy in the red biplane? And why did Gabriel need a spare biplane in the first        place?

    Where did Ethan's second parachute come from?  

    Where did Ethan's first parachute come from?

    Will Paris and Benji become an item?

    When did Benji learn how to perform surgery?

    When did Donloe learn how to disarm a nuclear bomb?

    How long does it take to get from the Arctic circle to South Africa?

    Who was the black dude who is suddenly in the team and what is his name?

    Which US city was the president going to nuke?

    Why does the Entity want to destroy the world and hide in a cave?

    Why doesn't the capture of the Entity destroy cyberspace since several times we were            warned this would happen?

    What does it mean to destroy cyberspace anyway?  And would it be such a bad thing?

    And why oh why don't we get to see Grace shoot a polar bear?

Now if Tom Cruise could have come back at the end to answer these I would have left the cinema feeling I had real value for money.